$20,000 Approved For School Davie Oks Funds For Historic Building

September 27, 1988|By MICHAEL TIGHE, Staff Writer

DAVIE -- The movement to restore the 71-year-old Davie School, once the town`s center of cultural and political life, received a $40,000 boost on Monday as town officials agreed to match a $20,000 state grant.

The $40,000 boosted the amount of public and private funds donated toward renovating Broward County`s oldest school building to $89,000. The town has estimated that it will cost about $650,000 to completely restore the building to its original state when built in 1917. According to newspaper accounts at the time, it cost $12,400 to construct.

In addition, the Broward County School Board has donated the school building and grounds to the town so it can begin its restoration project. The School Board has been using the building for office space since 1980.

Connie Dickey, president of the Davie School Foundation, which is leading the restoration drive, said the building must be preserved because of its historical significance to the town. Among other things, the town was first incorporated during a meeting held in the building in 1925.

``It served as the center of the community for everything,`` Dickey said. ``There`s a lot of Davie history tied to that school.``

The two-story building, which is on Southwest 45th Street near the Griffin Road bank of the New River, contains four classrooms on the first floor and a large meeting room on the second. When built on donated land by volunteer labor, it provided all the town`s schooling with students in different grades often sitting in the same classrooms, Dickey said.

The foundation wants to restore the meeting room, currently divided into offices, to its original dimensions and 500-seat capacity.

Also, the four classrooms would be restored and would contain their original chalkboards and desks. One of the rooms would be a historical museum.

``Broward County does not have a very visible history,`` Dickey said. ``So that makes this of even greater importance.``

Another classroom would be used to teach classes as they were taught in the 1920s using materials from that era. Dickey said this would give school children a historical perspective on the lives of schoolchildren back then.

The $20,000 Historical Preservation Grant was awarded by the state Division of Historical Resources in the Florida Department of State. The division previously had awarded a $9,000 grant also matched by the town. Also, a local dentist has donated $20,000, and the foundation has received about $11,000 in donations.

``We still feel that feeling of community,`` said Town Council Member Joan Kovac of the efforts. ``Davie has a history and we have to hang on to it.``